Lin Wanxing did not participate in the swimming activity.

Although the students couldn’t sit still during the holiday, Lin Wanxing still preferred to stay at home alone.

In the evening, everyone’s hair was damp, obviously having gone swimming.

They watched a classic football movie together, “Goal! The Dream Begins.”

The winter days were getting colder, and the last round of matches before the off-season ended before the New Year. The results were as follows:

Yongchuan Hengda 12-0 Hongjing Eighth School

Shanghai Haibo 2-2 Yuzhou Silver Elephant

The standings had changed accordingly:

Yongchuan Hengda: 9 points

Shanghai Haibo: 4 points

Hongjing Eighth School: 3 points

Yuzhou Silver Elephant: 1 point

For the students, earning 3 points and not finishing at the bottom of the group was a good result.

But they wanted more than that.

After Shanghai Haibo and Yuzhou Silver Elephant drew, the group stage situation changed somewhat.

Group powerhouse Yongchuan Hengda had already secured advancement, while Shanghai Haibo, with their physically superior players, stood in second place.

With the top two teams advancing, if Hongjing Eighth School still wanted to fight for a chance to qualify, then the match against Yuzhou Silver Elephant after the New Year would be crucial.

After all, Yuzhou Silver Elephant was the only opponent they had beaten in the first round.

The upcoming winter training became particularly important because of the post-New Year schedule.

The temperature was low, slowing down blood circulation in the human body.

Training in low temperatures helped improve players’ muscle endurance and cardiopulmonary function. It also helped the cerebral cortex respond more quickly to stimuli and environmental changes.

This was mentioned in the materials when discussing the importance of winter training.

But going outdoors to train in winter required strong willpower.

Hongjing was located in a mid-latitude region, with outdoor temperatures hovering around ten degrees Celsius.

The bitter wind was cutting. The students had all changed into long-sleeved tight training clothes and wore hats. Before training, everyone needed to warm up and stretch more carefully.

The grass was withered yellow, exposing large patches of soil.

Because winter days were short and nights long, training times were adjusted.

During Lin Wanxing’s normal work hours, she could hardly see the students training.

On a rare weekend, she put on her down jacket early and appeared at the field on time with Wang Fa.

The wind was colder in open spaces, but fortunately, today was a bright, sunny day. Wang Fa led the students in a serious warm-up, loosening their joints, and running laps.

The cold wind cut like a knife to the bone.

Lin Wanxing wanted to be lazy and sit for a while, but she couldn’t stay seated in the stands. So she followed behind the students and ran with them.

In front was the silent warm-up team, their footsteps uniform and rhythmic, echoing on the dark red rubber track.

If there was any change in the students these days compared to before, it was probably that they talked less.

It was cold, even bears hibernate, so it was understandable that teenagers became less talkative.

Everyone seemed to be holding back, wanting to overtake the winter training curve and beat Yuzhou Silver Elephant after the New Year.

The wind couldn’t extinguish the fire in their hearts; everyone was holding something back.

In winter, Wang Fa arranged smaller confrontational training exercises.

The students would experience more shuttle runs and speed changes, but this also created a problem where they were more likely to collide.

Continuous defending and attempting breakthroughs would involuntarily increase one’s temper. Twice, Qin Ao’s arm swung into Wen Chengye’s face during a collision.

Wen Chengye certainly wouldn’t back down; he directly aimed for Fu Xinshu’s ankle during a sliding tackle. Fu Xinshu fell with a cry, and Qin Ao immediately rushed over.

Wang Fa blew his whistle to stop the action.

On the field, Qin Ao confronted Wen Chengye face to face, held back by Fu Xinshu.

To keep warm in winter, Qin Ao wore a black wool hat, making him look even more fierce.

Lin Wanxing jumped down from the stands.

“You know what’s wrong with Old Fu’s foot, yet you still tackle so harshly. Be more careful!” Qin Ao said with a stern face.

Wen Chengye had thin skin, his face flushed red from the cold wind. He stared coldly at Qin Ao.

Just when Lin Wanxing thought Wen Chengye would retort something to Qin Ao, he instead gave Fu Xinshu a contemptuous glance, then turned away, silently hugging the ball.

Wen Chengye’s back was skinny. Although he seemed to hold his teammates in contempt, in a sense, this was a huge concession.

Qin Ao was stunned for a moment, too embarrassed to continue.

In the training that followed, Wen Chengye indeed stopped tackling Fu Xinshu and avoided any physical confrontation with him.

Wen Chengye didn’t care about his teammates, but he cared about his football.

At least, that’s what Lin Wanxing believed.

After the confrontational training, Wang Fa added new shooting drills.

There are many types of shooting practice.

This time, dummies were placed in front of the goal. The students needed to pass the ball according to designated routes while moving and coordinating with each other, ultimately taking a shot on goal.

Wen Chengye played as a defender, and in most attacking routes, he was the one trying to pass the ball to others and coordinate with them through screens.

Today’s shooting practice was “layoff and shoot.”

Player A passes to player B, and player C quickly makes a forward run while observing B’s position, maintaining good distance and running speed in preparation to receive the ball.

After B receives A’s pass, he adjusts his body, controls the passing power and angle, and passes to C, with C finally completing the shot.

Simply put, this was a passing and receiving drill involving three people. The difficult part was probably staying away from the dummy on one side to create better space.

This was quite a basic shooting combination.

But when it came to teamwork, with Wen Chengye involved, there would always be some strange problems.

Wang Fa had tried his best to avoid conflicts between students when forming groups.

Chen Jianghe, Fu Xinshu, and Wen Chengye were in one group. Fu Xinshu had a good temper, and Chen Jianghe was cool and couldn’t be bothered with Wen Chengye. These two were the least likely to conflict with Wen Chengye.

But Wen still wasn’t satisfied.

As point B, Wen Chengye should receive the ball from point A (Fu Xinshu), then find point C (Chen Jianghe) who was making a forward run. That was the simple process.

However, Wen Chengye had his ideas.

After receiving the return pass from point A (Fu Xinshu), he first dribbled past the dummy himself and then passed the ball back to point A (Fu Xinshu).

This maneuver completely confused Chen Jianghe, who had been quickly making a forward run waiting for the ball.

After receiving the pass, Fu Xinshu didn’t shoot but stopped to patiently explain to Wen Chengye the purpose and meaning of their shooting practice.

Wen Chengye wiped his sweat with his sleeve, not bothering to acknowledge Fu Xinshu.

Lin Wanxing observed the interaction between the students, and when Wang Fa blew his whistle again, Wen Chengye began another “performance.”

After receiving Fu Xinshu’s pass, he dribbled past the wooden poles himself and directly took a powerful shot, sending the ball into the goal.

1-0

Ugh!

The other boys on the field were dumbfounded!

Qin Ao couldn’t resist kicking the turf.

Yu Ming immediately ran over, shouting, “Teacher, Coach, look, this guy doesn’t want to practice properly at all!”

“Then what do you want to do, kick him off the team?” Unexpectedly, Qin Ao questioned Yu Ming from the side.

“Big bro?” Yu Ming was stunned. “Have you been possessed?”

“No, but what’s the point of yelling about this now?” Qin Ao asked, chewing on a grass stem.

“Well, what should I do, just hold it in?!”

Qin Ao squinted, looking at the stubborn person on the field, and finally spat out the grass, saying fiercely to Wang Fa, “Coach, let me switch to his group.”

Lin Wanxing looked at Wang Fa.

The young man nodded, signaling the switch.

In the shooting practice that followed, things became even more unpredictable.

Wen Chengye liked to orchestrate goals, trying to pass from various angles, with Fu Xinshu and Qin Ao as receivers, coordinating movements and supporting the attack.

The shooting practice wasn’t very difficult, but Wen Chengye alone made it highly challenging.

This combination’s success rate wasn’t high, because Fu Xinshu and Qin Ao often had no idea what Wen Chengye was trying to do.

But even so, Wang Fa didn’t blow his whistle to call a stop.

Lin Wanxing watched for a while, then folded her arms and said to Wang Fa, “I feel like this is the combination you’ve wanted all along.”

Wang Fa kept the whistle in his mouth, turned to look at her, and only said, “Put on another layer of clothes. Aren’t you cold?”

Lin Wanxing wasn’t sure if Wang Fa truly had everything under control or if he had other plans.

In any case, he didn’t interfere much with the relationships between players.

He gave them space to freely choose and adapt to each other.

Whether they argued or conflicted, he neither played peacemaker nor judged right from wrong.

In such an environment, Wen Chengye became even less willing to compromise. He lived by his own rules; football had to be played his way.

The team continued moving forward in this bumpy, tolerant process of mutual adaptation.

By the end of the year, most European leagues were in their off-season, with only the Premier League having packed fixtures.

It got dark early, and one day when the students learned that Wang Fa would be watching a match at night, they refused to leave, insisting on watching with their coach.

They called it “storing tactical knowledge”…

It sounded nice, but they just loved watching football together.

To watch matches, the students had adjusted their course schedule, shifting some evening classes to make room for the games they particularly wanted to see.

Lin Wanxing sat in her room, organizing content for the next phase of lessons.

Outside her window on the winter night terrace, the cold wind howled, and the “surviving” vegetables had all been carefully moved into the greenhouse.

Today it was Wen Chengye’s turn to clean up after dinner.

Because Wen Chengye was still very “independent,” and others were unwilling to partner with him, they preferred to grab the dirty work of washing dishes, leaving Wen Chengye responsible for the final task of drying dishes.

Wen Chengye was drying dishes at the counter by the sink, his back straight, looking like someone who would never bow his head.

The other boys were noisily crowded into Wang Fa’s room.

Through the window, the commentary before the football match started could be heard. The noise of boys pushing and shoving each other also rose.

Lin Wanxing curiously observed everything happening outside her window.

The whistle signaling the start of the match came from Wang Fa’s room.

Wen Chengye wiped his hands and stretched his neck in a rarely seen posture, looking through the window into Wang Fa’s room.

Lin Wanxing caught this scene.

The little Wen at the sink watched for a while, as if sensing something. He turned to look at her room, and Lin Wanxing smiled at him, though she wasn’t sure if he could see her.

Wen Chengye quickly turned back, continuing to dry dishes in the sink, seeming deep in thought.

After a while, Wen Chengye thought of something. He put down the plate, took out his phone from his pocket, and fiddled with it for a moment.

He placed the phone on the windowsill, propping it up with a chopstick holder from nearby.

The screen lit up, and the same clear, powerful commentary came from Wen Chengye’s phone.

While others crowded around one TV, Wen Chengye watched alone on his phone.

He turned the volume up very high.

From her room, Lin Wanxing could hear both sources, one after another, equally passionate, like a duet.

“Alright, we can see that Jesus has firm control of the ball, Sterling isn’t playing today, so he’s City’s only forward…”

From Lin Wanxing’s angle, she could only see Wen Chengye’s small, bright phone screen in front of the sink.

Wen Chengye continued drying dishes, no longer looking toward Wang Fa’s room, as if to say, “I don’t need to watch with you.”

This “never admitting defeat” attitude amused Lin Wanxing.

“Manchester City launches another attack, the ball goes to De Bruyne’s feet…”

“Foden takes a shot!”

The two commentaries intertwined, with Wen Chengye’s phone stream slightly ahead. Suddenly, the entire terrace became noisy.

The space instantly transformed into something like a mahjong hall with many tables, where uncles and aunties were all winning hands, creating quite a spectacle.

Soon, Yu Ming rushed out of Wang Fa’s room, yelling, “Your stream is too fast, it’s ruining the experience for us!”

Seeing that the boys were about to argue again, Fu Xinshu quickly followed him out.

“What?” Wen Chengye put down the plate slowly.

“You deliberately turned up the volume this high, right? I heard you just refreshed to make your stream faster than ours! So devious!” Zheng Feiyang said.

“You can refresh too,” Wen Chengye said coldly.

“You know damn well I’m watching on TV!”

The match commentary continued from both the phone and the room.

“Stop arguing, stop arguing.” Fu Xinshu hurried over in his classic peacekeeping role. After thinking for a moment, he finally said, “Wen Chengye, why not come inside and watch together?”

“Old Fu shut up,” Yu Ming shouted.

Just then, whistles from excited fans came simultaneously from both the TV and the phone, signaling an intense attack in the football match!

The commentary sped up, “Good, Manchester City suddenly accelerates! De Bruyne shifts to the right to receive the ball, he suddenly makes a long pass to the left side, and Foden directly kicks the ball into the penalty area. That was close! Maguire almost scored their own goal, fortunately, De Gea blocked it with his leg! Jesus follows up with a shot!”

“Quick, quick, quick!” From inside, Qin Ao yelled at the top of his lungs.

The people by the sink outside immediately rushed into the room.

Everyone held their breath, unconsciously gathering around the TV to watch.

In the warm and crowded space, the tense match made everyone hold their breath.

On the TV.

Manchester City forward Jesus took a direct shot in the penalty area without controlling the ball first. De Gea, who had already made a save, leaped up like lightning and desperately reached out to tip the ball.

The football jumped upward, hit the crossbar heavily, and bounced out of bounds.

“Ah!” The boys in the room let out a collective sigh of disappointment, including Wen Chengye.

The match resumed, and the atmosphere relaxed.

The students in the room—some standing, some cross-legged, some squatting—only then noticed the extra person beside them.

Wen Chengye still held the dish-drying cloth, clearly having been called in by Qin Ao’s shout.

Upon being discovered, he turned to leave.

Qin Ao, sitting on the carpet, looked up and glared at Wen Chengye. He was about to speak when Fu Xinshu kicked him, gesturing for him to move aside.

Qin Ao stiffened his neck, looking incredulously at Fu Xinshu.

“Watch with us,” Fu Xinshu said, looking up at Wen Chengye. “It’s okay to go home a bit later, right?”

Qi Liang cooperatively moved aside, grabbing Qin Ao’s collar and dragging him to the side.

“Murder!” Qin Ao shouted.

But regardless, space was made on the carpet.

Wen Chengye held the dry cloth, frozen in place, unable to move forward or backward.

Lin Wanxing stood at the door, smiling at Wen Chengye, saying, “Does the teacher need to personally invite you?”

Wen Chengye, “…”

Awkwardly, half-pushing and half-pulled, Wen Chengye sat down on the carpet in Wang Fa’s room and watched the match with everyone.

Eleven boys piled together, the room was warm, with not even space to place a foot.

Lin Wanxing stood watching for a while.

On the TV, the camera panned to the stands filled with spectators, “There are so many people,” she remarked.

“Of course, there are lots of people for Manchester United versus Manchester City! It’s the Manchester derby,” Lin Lu exclaimed.

Lin Wanxing raised her hand, “I know about derbies, they’re matches between teams from the same city.”

“Not exactly, but Manchester United and Manchester City are. They both belong to the city of Manchester, one called Manchester United, the other Manchester City,” Chen Jianghe explained.

“Oh, I see. So which one is better?”

“In the past, definitely Manchester United, but after Sir Alex Ferguson retired, it’s been Manchester City. Manchester City’s owner is super rich…”

“Does having a rich owner make a team great?”

Lin Wanxing watched while occasionally asking questions. The boys answered when they could, sometimes showing a bit of impatience.

Fu Xinshu said, “Teacher, aren’t you going to sit down and watch?”

Lin Wanxing scanned the room. The reason she wasn’t sitting was, of course, because every spot in the room was filled with boys, except for…

Except for a space next to Wang Fa.

That space had opened up after Lin Lu had slid down to squeeze in with his brothers on the carpet.

Wang Fa’s expression was casual.

Lin Lu gave her a look, urging her to sit down quickly.

Lin Wanxing stared at the student.

“Do I need to personally invite Teacher Lin too?” Wang Fa asked with a smile, mimicking her words while glancing at the space beside him.

Lin Wanxing hurriedly shook her head, “No, no need.”

The students laughed.

They made a difficult path for her, and she finally squeezed in to sit beside Wang Fa.

Lin Wanxing asked the students, “The ones in blue are Manchester City, right?”

Chen Jianghe, “Yes.”

Lin Wanxing, “They keep attacking. They must be very good?”

Lin Lu, “Teacher, you’re absolutely right. They’re probably the strongest team in the Premier League now. Guardiola has coached them for many years, they have money and talent. Manchester United isn’t playing well in this match, they’re completely dominated.”

Lin Wanxing looked at the other players, “Is that so?”

The others nodded in agreement.

“Manchester City is really strong this year. Even though they didn’t buy Kane in the summer, with the team Pep has, they can pass the ball straight into the goal!” Qin Ao said excitedly.

Wen Chengye let out a cold laugh.

Qin Ao jumped up, muttering something.

Wen Chengye, “So you know they didn’t get Kane, yet you claim they can pass into the goal? They didn’t get Kane, Aguero left, and they’re relying on Jesus alone to score. What are you thinking?”

Qin Ao, “They still have Sterling!”

Wen Chengye, “Sterling is not a center forward.”

Qin Ao, “What do you know? False nine, understand?”

Wen Chengye, “That’s old news. If the false nine was so effective, Guardiola wouldn’t have tried to buy Kane for £150 million in the summer. Since they didn’t get him, Manchester City has no chance this year.”

That was the first time Lin Wanxing had heard Wen Chengye talk so much, articulate and confident.

But just then, cheers erupted from the TV.

The football flew into the net, the referee’s whistle sounded, and Manchester City scored.

The players in blue jerseys excitedly embraced each other.

Qin Ao, “See that? Even without a forward scoring, their midfielder Bernardo Silva just scored. Barcelona’s front line was all small players without a center forward back then, and they still won the treble! Football blind trying to show off!”

Wen Chengye, “Winning this match doesn’t mean they’ll win the whole season. Guardiola has too many ideas.”

Qin Ao jumped up, “A goal is a goal!”

“Isn’t Manchester City’s goal enough to shut you up?”

“He’s just being stubborn,” Yu Ming said.

“Go on,” Chen Jianghe also looked provocatively at Wen Chengye.

Faced with his aggressive teammates, Wen Chengye didn’t bother to argue further. He picked up the cloth and left.

The excited commentary continued on the TV.

The door slammed shut.

And the small house on the entire terrace returned to the tranquility of the winter night.